Where Texas millennials are buying homes — and how much they cost

Where Texas millennials are buying homes — and how much they cost

By
Sam Radbil, Abodo

7.10.17 | 9:00 am

Texas' highest percentage of millennial homebuyers is found in McAllen.
Photos courtesy of Coldwell Banker Residential

For years, the percentage of 18- to 35-year-olds who own homes has been shrinking — by nearly 20 percent between 2005 and 2015. But recently, according to apartment-search site Abodo, millennials have been making progress in becoming homeowners, with a slight uptick in young adult owners between 2014 and 2015.

To be clear, the numbers are still weak — but encouraging nonetheless.

So where, exactly, are these millennial homeowners? According to Abodo's Millennial Homebuyers report, for the most part, they're scattered around the Midwest and South. Of the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, Ogden-Clearfield, Utah, had the highest percentage of millennials who own: 51 percent. On the other hand, the metro with the lowest percentage is absolutely no surprise: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim with 17.8 percent.

The Lone Star State showed up in the rankings as well: McAllen-Edinburg-Mission in South Texas took fourth place for highest percentage of millennials who own, coming in at just over 43 percent. As a whole, 30.5 percent of millennials are homeowners in the state.

Almost three-quarters of Dallas-Fort Worth’s millennial residents rent. Only 28.7 percent of millennials in DFW own homes, which means that we rank No. 77 out of the top 100 largest metros. The average millennial home value is $200,805, about 85 percent of the area average.

Are millennials in DFW renting because property values are rising rapidly? Most likely.

Other large Texas cities also fall in the middle: San Antonio-New Braunfels comes in at No. 71 for millennial homeownership (29.9 percent), Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land takes No. 74 with 29.1 percent of millennials owning homes, and Austin is No. 89 with 26.5 percent millennial homeowners. This all indicates that renting, not owning, is facilitating much of the explosive population growth to our south.

Despite the fairly low rankings for Texas' largest cities, the state scored well overall, especially when it comes to millennial down payments and home values. It takes Texas millennials an average of seven-and-a-half years to save up a down payment — which, on the whole, is a fantastic number, given that the national average is 15.6 years.

When Abodo measured how much millennial-owned homes cost compared to the average home price in each metro, Texas scored three places in the top 10 for most equal value and had no presence in the bottom 10.

At No. 1 nationwide is El Paso, where the average millennial-owned home cost 104.8 percent of the average area home. San Antonio-New Braunfels came in at No. 3 with 97.1 percent, and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission ranked No. 9 with 90.4 percent.